12 Moments That Show Real Kindness Outlasts Every Storm

In 2015, I was in grade 11, and just as my heart was broken from a breakup, my dad discovered he was ill. As he runs the family restaurant, he does most of the work in the store. Now, as he was admitted to the hospital, my sister and I had to work in the store. As soon as we came home from school, we were working.
I never did my homework as I was too tired after work, so I would go straight to bed. I fell behind in all my classes. I was getting into 60% averages.
The midterm exam was coming up, and I didn’t have an ounce of will to do it. One of my teachers came up to me and told me that when he hands out the exams tomorrow, do not open it.
He talked to the rest of my teachers and convinced them to give me a pass to the exam. So much weight was lifted off my back, I wrapped my arms around him and started to cry on his shoulder, but he just held me anyway.

I am a woman, and at the time, I was about 40, very MOM looking. I was out for a jog on the sidewalk of a busy street. Suddenly, a vicious dog comes out of nowhere and is snarling at me. I didn’t want to run from it as I feared that would surely make him attack me, so I walked backwards with my arms extended in front of me, in case he lunged, I could protect my face. Meanwhile, I am next to a traffic light, it’s red, and cars are stopped, and I can clearly see the danger I am in. I knock on this guy’s window for help, this big, burly dude shakes his head no and takes off when the light turns green. More cars go by looking right at me and don’t stop. Finally, two little college-age girls pull over. They yell for me to get into the car, I make a run for it, and am finally safe. I guess they actually saw the guy didn’t want to help me and were calling him every name in the book. They took me home, and I thanked them profusely.

I was struggling in the ocean with my kiddo and felt a small rip current. I started to panic, but didn’t want to worry my daughter. I made eye contact with a man 20 yds away and mouthed “Help.” He signaled for me to push my kiddo towards him while he maneuvered towards us. I pushed her with all my strength, and he calmly told her to swim with him while he told me to try to get my footing and my breath. After we made our way to shore and recovered, I looked for him. I couldn’t find him. He most likely saved our lives.

My husband and I needed to go to another city to try to get a job at a school (he’s a mathematician). Our plan was to sleep at the bus station and then take the test. Well... We didn’t know that the bus station in that city closed at night. There we were, in an unknown city, we didn’t know anyone, and our fear of sleeping on the street was growing every hour of the night. We didn’t have enough money (we spent it paying for the test itself), so on our last hope, we went to a nearby school, trying to sleep there (we were desperate). The school guards suspected us at the beginning, but with some talk, they let us stay. They gave us food and shelter, and my husband cried a lot. One of the guards then invited us (total strangers) to go to his house. He said that he called his wife, and she was happy to help us. He let us sleep at his house, with his wife and son, and got back to his night shift. I didn’t believe that a stranger would let me stay with his precious family. They even made breakfast for us, and in the morning, the guys left us at the bus station. Unfortunately, my husband didn’t pass the test, but we’ll never forget this. A total stranger family treated us better than our own families. I hope I can repay the kindness.

My mom passed away when I was in high school. The next day, a teacher of one of my hardest classes (which I was failing) asked to talk to me. He was known for being really mean, so obviously, I was nervous. He told me he was sorry for my loss, and this class wouldn’t be one more thing I had to worry about. He would pass me no matter what. I’ll never forget him and how kind he was to me in such a vulnerable moment in my life.

When I was 14/15, my genius brain decided to run through a rapeseed crop, within 5 minutes my face was so swollen I could barely see and it hurt, went to a pharmacy that I happened to be near and asked for help, they said they could help but would cost me £8 for the eye drops, told them I had no money on me and she laughed at said she cant help then. A random lady bought them for me, said I have a son who suffers from hayfever and can only imagine what you’re feeling. That was nearly 15 years ago now. I wish I could have found her again to thank her properly.

I was 24 and had a dragon tattoo that I was showing off at work. One of my colleagues in his thirties declined to view it as, in his words, “I don’t like tattoos on grown men, let alone young women.” Fair enough, each to their own.
Fast forward a few months, and that same colleague has just got back from a business trip. He comes up to me and says, I saw these and thought of you, so I got them for you as I know you like dragons. He then handed me a packet of sweets with a Dragon on them.
It doesn’t seem like much, but it made my day, and I’ll remember it forever.

My dad’s side of the family is very wealthy. My mom’s isn’t. When I moved away from home on my own, I started having health problems. It turned out I needed money urgently. I didn’t ask for help, but the one person who offered to help was the poorest person on my mom’s side—she offered me her entire savings nest egg to fix my car, on condition I eventually paid it back. It always stuck with me that in a family of millionaires and multi-millionaires, it was the self-employed aunt who took on waitressing gigs to get by who cared enough to offer to help—even though it would have cost her the most.

10 years back, now I came home from work and found my wife in bed with another guy in our home.
It was truly awful. I got into my car and drove for hours. I had nothing but the clothes on my back and my wallet.
I parked up at the first bed and breakfast I saw. I walked in and asked for a room for the night. The two elderly owners could tell something was up with me, and they walked me up to the room. Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. They had brought me a plate of hot food and a cup of tea.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d just taken a shower and was just sitting on the bottom of the bed, crying, thinking that I had nothing left in the world.
The next morning at breakfast, they sat with me, and we ate together, and I explained what had happened.
For the next 4 days, they went out of their way to include me and look after me so much. Took me out for lunch at local restaurants. It was so heartwarming, and I’m not sure I could have made that without them.
I’ve been going back to see them every summer since with my new wife and son. I asked them a few years back why they did it, and they said they couldn’t let someone in so much pain go through that alone.

Last week, half asleep on the late bus home, I saw a teen girl across from me staring at me in panic, hands trembling, eyes flicking to the man beside her. Then, hiding the screen under her jacket, she turned her phone my way. She’d typed just 5 words: “Please pretend you know me.”
I looked right at her and grinned. “Oh my GOD—is that you? I almost didn’t recognize you!” Loud enough for half the bus to hear. “How’s your mom doing?”
She blinked, then caught on. “She’s good. She’s been asking about you.” The man beside her went very still.
I stood, crossed the aisle, and dropped into the seat on her other side—putting myself between her and him—talking the whole time about a birthday party that never happened. Two stops later, I said, “This is us, come on, your mom’s already outside.” She grabbed her bag.
On the sidewalk, she finally let out a breath. She told me he’d sat down next to her three stops back, kept asking where she lived, kept inching closer, wouldn’t move when she asked him to. She was 15. Her phone was at 4%.
I waited with her until her dad’s headlights turned the corner. Before she climbed in, she hugged me and whispered, “I didn’t think anyone would notice.”
I think about that line more than I’d like to—how close it came to being true.